Panalpina has reached a new milestone in the roll-out of its single warehouse management system JDA across all of its logistics facilities around the world. The 50th site went live with JDA WMS in France. Shortly before that, JDA WMS was implemented at facilities in the USA and Belgium. The sites in Newtown and Brussels are part of a global distribution network for the healthcare customer IBA.

Panalpina and Cardiff Business School have strengthened their partnership with the launch of a new Logistics Manufacturing Research Centre. The center will conduct leading research into the fields of distributed manufacturing, 3D printing, the circular economy and the impact of digital manufacturing on global supply chains. The new center has already secured its first research grant.

Panalpina and 3D printing company Shapeways have entered into a strategic partnership which will enable both companies to expand their digital manufacturing capabilities globally. Panalpina sees digital manufacturing and 3D printing as a perfect complement to its Logistics Manufacturing Services offering, giving customers the possibility to customize products and bring production closer to demand.

Dubai has become the latest location where Panalpina offers Logistics Manufacturing Services to its customers. Rather than holding stock to cover every possible outcome, Panalpina assembles products from semi-knocked down (SKD) units to specific customer requirements at the last possible stage before shipping them to the end customer.

Panalpina sees reverse logistics as a strategic area for growth. To complement its reverse logistics offering in the technology sector, Panalpina has entered into a strategic alliance with Hong Kong-based company Spread Logistics.